Toviel > Recent Status Updates

Making another attempt to finish this one, but Beard’s insistence on hopscotching all the over the place is a drag.

Marking as complete now, because, holy crap, I do not care about the appendixes.

Finally finished Two Towers, onto Return of the King.

Officially made it through Fellowship. Five stars — and I still think the movie is better. I’m going to give it a watch before diving into Two Towers.

Finally some characterization for Pippin, who has entered his “find out” phase. Merry is an all-star hobbit compared to his movie counterpart, but we hadn’t focused on Pippin yet until just before the Mines of Moria. Like the movie, his character is “dipshit,” but still, Tolkien makes the boy relatable.

Merry was done so dirty in the movies. He’s such a natural leader to the party.

A lot of people give Tolkien shit for knocking Bilbo unconscious during the Battle of Five Armies. I, however, am much more disappointed with the fact that we didn’t get the scene where Lobelia finds out Bag-End is for sale.

Thoughts on the stories (see in rest comments):

• Metzengerstein: In theory I should like this. Intense, yet moronic, aristocratic rivalries? A horse that could be the actual devil, but also maybe just a normal horse because horses are… like that? Dramatic estate fires? I should love this. And yet. 5/10

• The Duc de l’Omelette: my distant memories of high school French are not adequate for this. help. 4/10

Second attempt. Very uncomfortable with the general premise of this one, but I like Hutton enough that I’m willing to give it a shot.

Rand’s brazen and incoherent philosophy can be boiled down to a pirate saying he is stealing from the poor to give to the rich and the book tries to argue it’s the moral high ground.

As much as I disdainfully enjoy this book specifically because of its depiction of a suspended animation apocalypse, I am ready for the strike to finally start. Burn it all to the ground already!

Rand’s horrid philosophy notwithstanding, the first tenth of this novel has held up surprisingly well.

Second attempt at reading this. I struggle with Tolkien on good days and I’m already grumpy on the first page of the first chapter.

Digital loan expired. Possibly DNF, really not vibing with the constant meta interruptions and massive info dumps.

Lord and Lady, give me the strength to finish this before my Libby loan expires.

In the middle of the Blue Carbuncle right now. Sort of bummed that it ISN’T a cute story about Sherlock Holmes returning a random dude’s hat for Christmas.

I genuinely can’t remember who Helen and Julia are most of the time.

As much as I like(d) Penzcak’s eclecticism, combining Bad Witch History with Bad Gay History is giving me a literal migraine.

I somehow studied this book for a women studies class in college without ever actually reading it. Forward is interesting, tries to argue a lack of intersectionality is a good thing.

DNF.

I’m still reading this, but I keep getting distracted every couple pages by looking up if whatever the latest batshit thing this author said is true.

Book II is *significantly* better than Book I, but I'm missing the awesome female characters from the first half.

For the record, I am ONLY reading this garbage because a free copy was sent to my workplace.

I received an ARC for this book as part of a press packet for my job at a regional newspaper. No idea if I’m going to review it for the paper (or on here), but might as well read it since I have it!

Continuing to pick at my “need to reread” pile, if anyone’s curious about my reading choices lately.

This was my favorite Tamora Pierce series back in the day (I loved anything and everything involving thieves, rogues, and espionage as a teenager). Curious about how it has held up.

Fun fact: I’m dyslexic and went completely untreated in my youth! For some reason, this book was IMPOSSIBLE for me to comprehend when was ten or eleven, and I read it cover to cover at least three times. Revisiting this one will be fun.

I need more books with vampires who are limited to anagrams of their human identity.